Today, more than 200,000 people visit the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness each year. This unique natural area is widely appreciated, but for decades the Boundary Waters was the source of a contentious debate. In the years before the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act passed in 1978, tensions decades in the making finally boiled over. In this edition of WTIP North Shore Community Radio’s historical series “History Speaks,” producer Ada Igoe presents the voices of the 1970s Boundary Waters Canoe Area debate in Cook County.